# CVE-2025-38059: btrfs: avoid NULL pointer dereference if no valid csum tree

> A local attacker can cause a kernel crash via NULL pointer dereference in btrfs scrub when using the rescue=idatacsums mount option.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Jun 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-63950, AZL-70292, BELL-CVE-2025-38059, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38059, GHSA-4h2w-f3jr-93rm, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38059, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38059, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38059, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38059, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38059

## What is CVE-2025-38059?

CVE-2025-38059 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

btrfs: avoid NULL pointer dereference if no valid csum tree

[BUG]
When trying read-only scrub on a btrfs with rescue=idatacsums mount
option, it will crash with the following call trace:

  BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000208
  #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
  #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
  CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 835 Comm: btrfs Tainted: G           O        6.15.0-rc3-custom+ #236 PREEMPT(full)
  Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS unknown 02/02/2022
  RIP: 0010:btrfs_lookup_csums_bitmap+0x49/0x480 [btrfs]
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   scrub_find_fill_first_stripe+0x35b/0x3d0 [btrfs]
   scrub_simple_mirror+0x175/0x290 [btrfs]
   scrub_stripe+0x5f7/0x6f0 [btrfs]
   scrub_chunk+0x9a/0x150 [btrfs]
   scrub_enumerate_chunks+0x333/0x660 [btrfs]
   btrfs_scrub_dev+0x23e/0x600 [btrfs]
   btrfs_ioctl+0x1dcf/0x2f80 [btrfs]
   __x64_sys_ioctl+0x97/0xc0
   do_syscall_64+0x4f/0x120
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

[CAUSE]
Mount option "rescue=idatacsums" will completely skip loading the csum
tree, so that any data read will not find any data csum thus we will
ignore data checksum verification.

Normally call sites utilizing csum tree will check the fs state flag
NO_DATA_CSUMS bit, but unfortunately scrub does not check that bit at all.

This results in scrub to call btrfs_search_slot() on a NULL pointer
and triggered above crash.

[FIX]
Check both extent and csum tree root before doing any tree search.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38059?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38059?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38059 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38059 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38059 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38059 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38059 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38059/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38059/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38059
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38059
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38059

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38059/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.